Fugitive NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has left diplomatic limbo land. But the freedom he is seeking may be hard to find in his temporary home in Russia.

Fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden's new Russian refugee document. Snowden securing temporary asylum in Russia on Thursday, ending more than a month in limbo in a Moscow airport's transit area.

Edward Snowden has left diplomatic limbo land. But the freedom the fugitive American whistleblower is seeking may be difficult to find in his temporary home in Russia.

After squatting in the transit area of a Moscow airport for more than five weeks, Snowden was granted a one-year asylum on Thursday, ratcheting up tensions between Russia and the U.S., which has charged him with espionage.

He reportedly slipped away in a taxi to the home of some American expats, calling Russia’s offer a victory for the rule of law.

“Over the past eight weeks we have seen the Obama administration show no respect for international or domestic law, but in the end the law is winning,” he said in a statement released by WikiLeaks.

Snowden’s presence in Russia has sparked excitement among some young Russians. Before his asylum request was granted, he was offered a marriage proposal by the glamorous former spy known as Anna Chapman. And he has had a stream of job offers — the first from the popular Russian social networking site VK.

His lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said he intends to work, and has received letters from eager companies and individuals.

Snowden has agreed not to publish any more leaks that damage the U.S., as Putin requested.

But Moscow liberal opposition leader Ilya Yashin, who was arrested in a political protest, warned that Snowden “should not be expecting Russian special intelligence services to show any noble behaviour toward him.”

“He should not expect that they will be treating him as some kind of fighter for liberties and human rights,” Yashin said.

In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama was “extremely disappointed” by Russia’s decision to harbour Snowden, and that the administration was now reconsidering a Putin-Obama summit tentatively planned for September.

Snowden, a former U.S. spy agency contractor, exposed the extent of America’s electronic spying and now tops Washington’s most wanted list. Fleeing to Hong Kong, then Moscow, he has become an international hero and villain.

Snowden had little choice of asylum. A handful of South American countries offered refuge, but U.S. allies were under pressure to close their air space to any plane that carried him. Nor was Putin — himself a former KGB spy — initially eager to extend hospitality to a leaker of state secrets.

That, for Snowden, might ring an alarm bell. Although human rights advocates welcome his exit from the airport, they warn his plight is far from over in a country that has little respect for freedom of expression and other rights.

“Edward Snowden should be allowed to get asylum wherever he thinks he can be safe,” said Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch’s deputy director for Europe and Central Asia. “His rights should be respected.”

But she warned, “Russia is in the midst of the most intense, fierce crackdown on human rights since the end of the Soviet era. It’s across the board, on a whole range of civil and political rights.”

Last month Putin signed a draconian law that stigmatizes gay people and bans giving any information about homosexuality to children as gay “propaganda.” The ban will also apply to foreigners attending the Sochi Olympics.

The Russian parliament has passed a slate of other laws that appeal to conservative, religious and anti-Western constituents. They include laws that restrict freedom of assembly and expression, crack down on foreign funding of NGOs, give greater protection against libel for public officials, and expand definitions of treason.

Russian-Canadian activist Pyotr Verzilov — the husband of imprisoned Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova — said Snowden should maintain “reasonable judgment” about Russia’s human rights, and “be careful and cautious with Russian authorities even if they provide him with refuge.”

Snowden is in “an impossible position because his narrative of transparency is completely at odds with Putin’s police state,” said William Browder, head of Hermitage Capital Management, which campaigned for U.S. sanctions against Russian officials suspected in the death of alleged tax fraud whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky.

“It is much too late to give (Snowden) advice on how to behave in Russia,” added Olga Bakushinskaya, a prominent Moscow journalist and blogger.